The great car search: 2011 edition.
The plan: For my birthday this year, I was finally gonna buy myself a new car. So I started doing test-drives in earnest: I figured that given two months, most of the dealerships I talked to would eventually get in something with a manual transmission, and if they had my contact information I could drive it. Even though I wasn't planning on pulling the trigger until late February, I should start about that early.
I started getting my notes together. And I started visiting dealerships. I hit the Hyundai dealership last week, because it was convenient and I knew where it was. Sure enough, not a single manual transmission on the lot. But the dealer will call me when he gets one and I'll go test drive it.
I hit the Subaru dealership earlier this week. There isn't a WRX on a dealer lot anywhere in the state. And they don't have one coming in this month. But there's a few STis coming in if I wanted to drive one of those to get a feel for it... I figured I'd take him up on the STi for the fun of it, but the car is outside my price range and a bit more hopped up than I really want, as I'd like to get a little bit quieter than my Miata on the highway.
Today, I hit the Honda dealership on the way home from work to test-drive the CR-Z.
Now, here's the part in the story where I digress a little. Remember when I bought my house in Georgia? My lease wasn't up 'til July, but since houses can take forever to sort out, I contacted the buyer's agent in January. And she suggested that we should go look at some houses to see what sorts of things I wanted in a house so she could do a better job of separating out the chaff. As we were looking for a different house in the Bayhill Estates development, I saw a sign that said, "Bay Creek, From the 150s" and said, "Ah, over there," having gotten my Bays mixed up for a moment. When I said, "Oh, no, that's Bay Creek, not Bay Hill," she said, "It's the right price range, let's go look.
When we got there, I saw this house. It had the full-width gallery porch. It had a humongous garage. A basement. A kitchen that you could fit three or four people in. It was my house. I wasn't planning on buying yet, but it was my house.
You can see where I'm headed with this.
Now, if you clicked on the link at the top of the page, you know the top of my list is a 2011 Ford Mustang Premium. Yeah, it's just the little V6, but the V6 these days has 300 horsepower. And it gets 30 miles to the gallon (though I'd likely buy it with the 3.31:1 limited-slip axle, which would drop that a few.) If you remember my trip to Denver, I rented one and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One might argue that rental was what got me to wanting a new car.
The Honda dealership has a used car center. And sitting out front was a Kona Blue Mustang. With the new body style that only came out last year. I couldn't figure out why anyone would have traded in a 2010 Mustang yet. And I looked at the sticker in the window. All the options matched what I would've ordered on the 2011 model except one: This one's got the V8 under the hood.. It even claimed to have an extended warranty. And while the saleswoman was pulling the key for the CR-Z, I looked it up on my phone. It was $1500 cheaper than what I was going to pay for the V6 2011 model.
I drove the CR-Z. It was a hoot, though it's got a bit more torque steer than I think I'm going to be willing to deal with long-term (Nothing like a 2003 PT Cruiser GT, sure). I looked at the back, tried to decide if I could get Beauty into the back of it. It was a good car, and I liked it. They've really done it well, even if on paper everything is all wrong. But it didn't wow me enough to move it much up my list.
And then I asked about the Mustang. And she went to pull the key. And I think Niki knew she sold a car. Too bad she doesn't work that side of the house, but I hope they'll do something polite with the commission.
We talked more about it. She introduced me to one of the used car sales guys who drives a 2010 Mustang GT himself. I found out the car has 4,450 miles on it. I couldn't figure it out-- why is this car on this lot?
I drove away from the lot cursing. I wasn't going to buy a car yet, but that car is certainly not going to be on the lot for another month and a half. But I didn't do much research at all on 2010 models, so I sure as heck wasn't going to spend five figures on one. (Plus, there's that whole bit where my wife wasn't expecting me to buy a car quite yet, either. Which is, I understand, an important factor...)
I threw the VIN at CarFax. And then I threw the VIN at a friend who works at a Ford dealership to pull the options list so I could find out what the folks at the Honda shop didn't have on the sticker-- particularly, I wanted the limited-slip differential, and it didn't mention one. Carfax came back clean. The car went on sale originally at the Ford dealership when it was brand new in March of '10. It got to this Honda dealership in November. It's had one service record: when the Honda dealership did the Maryland State Inspection. And the car came from the factory with the limited-slip differential, which meant, yep, it was basically a perfect match. I did some more reading-- I knew I liked the 2011 SYNC center-stack, but I didn't know what differences there were between the 2010 and the 2011. Turns out: None.
So this car is the same body, chassis, and suspension as the car I wanted. The engine makes 10 more horsepower, 45 more ft-lbs of torque, and the car's rated for 24 MPG instead of the likely 27 or so that they'd've probably rated the 2011 I considered buying. It's less than a year out of the factory, no title, collision, or maintenance issues on its history, a mere 4,450 miles on it, claims to have an extended warranty, in the color I want, with the options I want... and cheaper. Sure, it's 100 horsepower down on the 2011 version of the Mustang GT, but it's also about $8,000 cheaper...
So I talked to Amy about it. Originally the plan was to go out for breakfast (free chicken biscuit!) and then to a dealership or two where she was going to go sit in a couple cars on my list so I knew whether or not she hated climbing in and out of it and possibly riding in it.
That plan has been demoted to Plan B. Plan A is now, assuming that the dealership doesn't throw a stereotypical used car salesman at me, "Buy a 2010 Mustang GT." Well, we'll still do the free chicken biscuit and the have Amy sit in it first, sure, but I suspect I'm not stopping at a mere test-drive tomorrow.
I started getting my notes together. And I started visiting dealerships. I hit the Hyundai dealership last week, because it was convenient and I knew where it was. Sure enough, not a single manual transmission on the lot. But the dealer will call me when he gets one and I'll go test drive it.
I hit the Subaru dealership earlier this week. There isn't a WRX on a dealer lot anywhere in the state. And they don't have one coming in this month. But there's a few STis coming in if I wanted to drive one of those to get a feel for it... I figured I'd take him up on the STi for the fun of it, but the car is outside my price range and a bit more hopped up than I really want, as I'd like to get a little bit quieter than my Miata on the highway.
Today, I hit the Honda dealership on the way home from work to test-drive the CR-Z.
Now, here's the part in the story where I digress a little. Remember when I bought my house in Georgia? My lease wasn't up 'til July, but since houses can take forever to sort out, I contacted the buyer's agent in January. And she suggested that we should go look at some houses to see what sorts of things I wanted in a house so she could do a better job of separating out the chaff. As we were looking for a different house in the Bayhill Estates development, I saw a sign that said, "Bay Creek, From the 150s" and said, "Ah, over there," having gotten my Bays mixed up for a moment. When I said, "Oh, no, that's Bay Creek, not Bay Hill," she said, "It's the right price range, let's go look.
When we got there, I saw this house. It had the full-width gallery porch. It had a humongous garage. A basement. A kitchen that you could fit three or four people in. It was my house. I wasn't planning on buying yet, but it was my house.
You can see where I'm headed with this.
Now, if you clicked on the link at the top of the page, you know the top of my list is a 2011 Ford Mustang Premium. Yeah, it's just the little V6, but the V6 these days has 300 horsepower. And it gets 30 miles to the gallon (though I'd likely buy it with the 3.31:1 limited-slip axle, which would drop that a few.) If you remember my trip to Denver, I rented one and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One might argue that rental was what got me to wanting a new car.
The Honda dealership has a used car center. And sitting out front was a Kona Blue Mustang. With the new body style that only came out last year. I couldn't figure out why anyone would have traded in a 2010 Mustang yet. And I looked at the sticker in the window. All the options matched what I would've ordered on the 2011 model except one: This one's got the V8 under the hood.. It even claimed to have an extended warranty. And while the saleswoman was pulling the key for the CR-Z, I looked it up on my phone. It was $1500 cheaper than what I was going to pay for the V6 2011 model.
I drove the CR-Z. It was a hoot, though it's got a bit more torque steer than I think I'm going to be willing to deal with long-term (Nothing like a 2003 PT Cruiser GT, sure). I looked at the back, tried to decide if I could get Beauty into the back of it. It was a good car, and I liked it. They've really done it well, even if on paper everything is all wrong. But it didn't wow me enough to move it much up my list.
And then I asked about the Mustang. And she went to pull the key. And I think Niki knew she sold a car. Too bad she doesn't work that side of the house, but I hope they'll do something polite with the commission.
We talked more about it. She introduced me to one of the used car sales guys who drives a 2010 Mustang GT himself. I found out the car has 4,450 miles on it. I couldn't figure it out-- why is this car on this lot?
I drove away from the lot cursing. I wasn't going to buy a car yet, but that car is certainly not going to be on the lot for another month and a half. But I didn't do much research at all on 2010 models, so I sure as heck wasn't going to spend five figures on one. (Plus, there's that whole bit where my wife wasn't expecting me to buy a car quite yet, either. Which is, I understand, an important factor...)
I threw the VIN at CarFax. And then I threw the VIN at a friend who works at a Ford dealership to pull the options list so I could find out what the folks at the Honda shop didn't have on the sticker-- particularly, I wanted the limited-slip differential, and it didn't mention one. Carfax came back clean. The car went on sale originally at the Ford dealership when it was brand new in March of '10. It got to this Honda dealership in November. It's had one service record: when the Honda dealership did the Maryland State Inspection. And the car came from the factory with the limited-slip differential, which meant, yep, it was basically a perfect match. I did some more reading-- I knew I liked the 2011 SYNC center-stack, but I didn't know what differences there were between the 2010 and the 2011. Turns out: None.
So this car is the same body, chassis, and suspension as the car I wanted. The engine makes 10 more horsepower, 45 more ft-lbs of torque, and the car's rated for 24 MPG instead of the likely 27 or so that they'd've probably rated the 2011 I considered buying. It's less than a year out of the factory, no title, collision, or maintenance issues on its history, a mere 4,450 miles on it, claims to have an extended warranty, in the color I want, with the options I want... and cheaper. Sure, it's 100 horsepower down on the 2011 version of the Mustang GT, but it's also about $8,000 cheaper...
So I talked to Amy about it. Originally the plan was to go out for breakfast (free chicken biscuit!) and then to a dealership or two where she was going to go sit in a couple cars on my list so I knew whether or not she hated climbing in and out of it and possibly riding in it.
That plan has been demoted to Plan B. Plan A is now, assuming that the dealership doesn't throw a stereotypical used car salesman at me, "Buy a 2010 Mustang GT." Well, we'll still do the free chicken biscuit and the have Amy sit in it first, sure, but I suspect I'm not stopping at a mere test-drive tomorrow.